Well, here we go again, the San Francisco Giants have continued their alternate-year pattern, missing the playoffs in the year after they win the World Series. It’s been an off-again, on-again existence for the Giants since the beginning of the decade.

2010: Won World Series
2011: Missed playoffs
2012: Won World Series
2013: Missed playoffs
2014: Won World Series
2015: Missed playoffs

Any questions?

Of course there are – we have lots of them. Lets answer a few while bidding a fond farewell to the 2015 San Francisco Giants.

Team: San Francisco Giants

Date eliminated: September 29
Record when eliminated: 82-75, .522
Games back when eliminated: 6.0 division, 10.0 Wild Card

What went wrong?

Last year’s Giants postseason run was fueled by remarkable pitching, particularly from young ace Madison Bumgarner. With some offensive subtractions in the offseason (including Pablo Sandoval and Michael Morse), the 2015 Giants were very reliant on replicating their success on the mound.

Bumgarner was as good as advertised, but the back end of the rotation was not. Tim Lincecum started off bad and ended up injured. Tim Hudson ended his career with a down season and ended up being moved to the bullpen. Matt Cain still hasn't overcome his slew of injuries and was sent to the bullpen, too.

Injuries, like the one to trade-deadline acquisition Mike Leake, didn’t help, but it was what the pitchers did when they were on the mound that really destroyed the 2015 Giants.

Did anything go right?

Fans are always disappointed when their teams fail to reach the postseason, but how upset you are about this San Francisco Giants team really depends on how reasonable you want to be about expectations. Was this team supposed to be better or worse than last year’s World Series team? Well, probably worse. They lost some bats (the aforementioned Sandoval and Morse), and their division got better around them.

This year, the Giants were eliminated with five games left in the regular season. Their record was 82-75. With five games left to play last year, the Giants were 85-72. So this year’s Giants were only three games worst than last year’s. They could end the year even closer than that.

Simply put, this team isn’t much worse than last year’s. They would have been a Wild Card team if the National League Central hadn’t been so absurdly good. They were the last non-playoff team to be eliminated from the National League race. That may be cold comfort to fans, but it would be unfair to call this a bad team.

Will they get ‘em next year?

There are reasons to believe that the Giants will continue their even-year dominance next season. All they really need are more reliable pitchers on the back end of the rotation. A healthy roster would help too, though it may not be something to count on (after all, the most reliable predictor of future injuries of a player is the existence of past ones).

Plenty of core members of the Giants are in their primes, including catcher Buster Posey. Their championship window will still be open for at least one more season, giving them yet another chance to follow up regular-season failure with postseason triumph.

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